Border Wars – Queens versus Nassau

With all the talk about a border wall between the United States and Mexico, we were amused to come across a proposed law that is pending in both the Assembly and Senate of the New York State Legislature to establish a Nassau County and Queens County border task force to review jurisdiction and boundary disputes. The Senate version (S4412) and the Assembly version (A6223) are identical.

The proposed law provides for a seven-member task force, with members being appointed by the governor on the recommendations of the temporary president of the senate, the speaker of the assembly, the minority leader of the senate, the minority leader of the assembly, the Nassau County executive, the Queens County borough president and the superintendent of the state police. The members of the task force will serve without compensation. The task force would have the power to conduct public hearings, issue subpoenas for witnesses and documents, and recommend legislation. The task force is supposed to issue a report of its findings and make recommendations by January 1, 2019.

You may be thinking – is this task force necessary? Haven’t heard of any border disputes between Queens and Nassau counties, other than the residents of Queens reminding anyone within hearing distance that they are part of New York City and not part of Long Island? Well, we found a few mentioned in news reports.

On December 20, 2010, CBS News reported on the “Snow Removal Border War Between Queens, Nassau.” Seems the residents of Floral Park were luxuriating in snow-plowed streets while across the street in Little Neck, merely 50 feet away, Queens residents were still snowed-in. Another article, from December 16, 2005 in the New York Times entitled “The Defining Line”, reported on the 15½ mile border between the two counties, from Little Neck Bay on the north shore, to Rockaway on the south shore. The article mentioned one homeowner whose house was located in both counties. He had a Douglaston Manor, Queens mailing address, got his mail from the Little Neck, Queens post office, but part of his home was located in Great Neck. He voted in Nassau and considered himself a Long Islander.

So next time you find yourself driving along the Cross Island Parkway near Belmont Race Track, watch for the roads signs that inform you that you are in Queens, then Nassau, and back in Queens in a matter of a few seconds. You have entered, and left, the Nassau – Queens border wars.